Five people, including a CISF jawan, was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in triggered by Naxals in poll-bound Chhattsigarh's Dantewada district on Thursday.

Two personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were also injured in the incident, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava told news agency PTI.

The explosion took place in a hilly area in Bacheli in Dantewada when the personnel were returning to their camp after purchasing groceries from market, he said. The civilians killed in the blast included the bus driver, conductor and cleaner.

The attack comes a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s campaign in the state on Friday. Gandhi will address five rallies over two days, including in Rajnandangaon, the constituency of CM Raman Singh, while Modi will visit Jagdalpur.

This is the second attack by the Naxals in the poll-bound state in recent days. On October 30, two police personnel and a Doordarshan cameraman were killed in a Naxal attack in Nilawaya village under the Aranpur police station.

Dantewada falls under the Naxal-affected Bastar region, which also includes Bijapur, Konta, Chitrakot, Bastar, Narainpur, Kondagaon, Keshkal, Kanker, Bhanupratappur, Antagarh and Jagdalpur. Of them, eight are held by the Congress and the rest by the BJP.

This region has been witness to some of the deadliest Maoist attacks in the country over several years, and the recent attack on the Doordarshan crew brought the issue of Naxalism back to headlines.

A total of 18 assembly seats spread across eight Naxal-hit districts will go to polls in the first phase on November 12 and rest 72 seats on November 20. The opposition Congress has been trying to wrest power from the BJP which has been ruling the state since 2003 under Chief Minister Raman Singh.

The Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh will be held in two phases on November 12 and 20. The results will be announced on December 11.